In a somewhat heated meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board on Wednesday, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett took credit for the timeline the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. set in April for deciding what to do with the decaying Reliant Astrodome, describing it as an attempt to put an end to a nonstop stream of private reuse ideas that don’t have financial backing — and to force a decision on what to do with the vacant stadium.

“The private groups kept coming and coming and coming and I started chewing on… the Sports and Convention Corp. to set a deadline,” Emmett, who took office in 2007, explained. “This was more a deadline to make sure that those who kept talking actually came to some end and namely that they either had money or they didn’t have money or they had a definite plan or they didn’t have a definite plan.”

Rebuking a Chronicle editorial last Thursday that described the process as rushed and set up to end in demolition, Emmett went on to say that “there’s no plot that I’m aware of.”

“It wasn’t anything to try to short circuit the system,” he said. “In fact, it was trying to put an end to a system that had been going on for years.”

Emmett, who attended the meeting with Reliant Park General Manager Mark Miller and sports corporation Board Chairman Edgardo Colón, said he requested the meeting because of the editorial and wanted to make it clear that the county is trying to make the process as transparent as possible.

Members of the editorial board pressed the officials about why none of the 19 private reuse proposals submitted before the sports corporation’s deadline were vetted publicly, or given greater consideration. The sports corporation accepted private reuse proposals through June 10, but ultimately recommended its own plan to Harris County Commissioners Court, which voted Tuesday to send the plan to staff to review the estimated price, figure out how to fund it and get some kind of bond referendum on the ballot as early as November.

Emmett and Colón said that none of the private submissions had financial backing or were designed to generate revenue like the proposal presented by the sports corporation.

In an effort to be transparent, Emmett’s spokesman Joe Stinebaker brought the rejected private proposals (22 total, as three were turned in late) to the meeting in a cardboard file box.

Emmett said he is “solidly behind” the sports corporation’s proposal to convert the vacant stadium into a 350,000-square-foot, energy-efficient convention center and exhibit space. Officials say the street-level facility, which would cost an estimated $194 million and take 30 months to complete, could host portions of the annual Offshore Technology Conference, rodeo events, swimming competitions, high school football games, graduations and also potentially attract new events.

The proposal, called “The New Dome Experience,” may not be the best, Emmett said, but “it is the best one out there.”

The editorial board also inquired whether a new convention center is needed, the proposed facility’s business plan, potential revenue generation from user fees and potential number of users. Firm estimates are still being worked out, the officials said, but that they believe it would see high demand, and present the opportunity to attract more events. Rough revenue estimates for the amount that could be generated by a multipurpose facility are in the Reliant Park Master Plan, Miller said.

Such a facility would lose an estimated $400,000 a year. The county currently spends more than $2 million a year to maintain and insure the structure.

There is no formal commitment from OTC to use the proposed facility, but Executive Director Stephen Graham said in a statement Wednesday that the conference, which is at Reliant Center, “has been at capacity for the last several years.”

“This proposal provides a good option to help us with more space,” the statement said.

During the meeting, Emmett said he has “always” wanted to save the Dome, and has said so in “hundreds of speeches over the years.” He said those talks have also included his “preference is that we save the dome and that we turn it into a place for festivals and gatherings and exhibitions and everything else.”

“I’ve said that over and over and over,” he said.

County budget staff are expected to come back to commissioners court with their findings by Aug. 1. The budget office is reviewing project financing, the public infrastructure department is reviewing the cost estimate and engineering details and the county attorney was tasked with helping the county meet deadlines to get the project on the ballot this fall.

Emmett said he “wasn’t keen on the idea” of having the vote this year because there won’t be any other county issues on the November ballot, other than state constitutional amendments. But he said it has to happen if the project is to be done in time for the 2017 Super Bowl at Reliant Stadium. It also has the greatest chance of passing, he said.

“If we don’t have it this year it won’t be ready in time for the Final Four and the Super Bowl and I hate to miss those opportunities,” Emmett said. “And the political reality is I think it’s more likely to pass when you don’t have the whole county voting because I think the people in the city of Houston probably have more of an attachment to the dome than people out of the suburbs. It’s just a guess; We haven’t polled that yet.”

The vacant Astrodome hasn’t housed a professional sports team in more than 13 years and was deemed unfit for occupancy by city inspectors in 2009 (Photo by Melissa Phillip)

2 Responses

At least it is a plan to save the Dome. I would like to see the other proposals though and if this plan takes taxpayer monies, I don’t see why one of the other proposals couldn’t use the same taxpayer money if they are a better idea. Come on County show us the other proposals!!!!!!